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Who thinks Dru Sjodin's murderer would've been stopped by pee or vomit?

The brutal and completely preventable sex assault and murder of Dru Sjodin serves as a sobering reminder of why we must continue to empower women with "Gun Sense" and continue to fight to preserve and ensure their right to use it.

We've come a long way in the ten years since Dru's death in the quest to empower and enable women and other vulnerable populations to take charge of their own personal safety. In part, we've done that through important legislation like the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act of 2003 (MCPPA) - Minnesota's "shall issue" right-to-carry law.

Part of the challenge we still face is overcoming the political ideologues who, through their adherence to dogmatic talking points and blind allegiance to party, foster a culture of bigotry and misinformation about gun ownership that keeps women from seeking empowerment, and, instead, promotes such idiotic and dangerous suggestions as peeing on or vomiting on one’s attacker.

Is there anyone reading this who thinks Dru’s attacker would have been stopped by pee or vomit?

In the years since Dru’s death, the number of women taking charge of their own personal safety by obtaining their permit-to-carry and through gun ownership has grown significantly – with exponential growth more recently.

New permit-to-carry issued to women in Minnesota in 2012 increased by 81% over permits issued to women in 2011, and for Minneapolis specifically, permits issued to women increased by 40% in 2012. New permits issued to women accounted for nearly 18% of all new permits issued in Minnesota in 2012*.

In the years since the MCPPA legislation was enacted, Minnesota's violent crime rate has precipitously fallen as has the rate of domestic violence. Merely a correlation you say? OK, you can keep telling yourself that. Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue to help save lives by sharing knowledge and fighting to ensure access to effective means of crime deterrence and self defense.